Core Flood EOR Experiment by Injecting Liquid Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide flooding have been applied in
many oil field reservoirs to enhance oil recovery. The used
of CO2 to enhanced oil recovery historically focused on
supercritical CO2 to achieve miscible conditions with crude
oil. However, one of the major problems agreed is early
breakthrough attributed to the unfavorable mobility of
CO2 in the reservoir.
The objective of this study is to investigate volume of oil
recovery by injecting liquid CO2 into the residual oil in
place in a core sample. This study occupied 3 fresh Berea
Sandstone core plugs and one of Malaysian basin crude oil.
Oil recovery was produced by laboratory core flooding
experiment. The core was displaced with crude oil after
initial brine saturation. Water flood was then initiated by
injecting 10,000 ppm concentration of brine water. Oil
recovery by water floods were various from 36.6% until
38% after introducing 9 PV of brine. Prior to tertiary
recovery, the liquid CO2 was injected at 1200 psig and
1500 psig and several constant temperatures of 20°C, 12°C,
and 5°C. In the end, the liquid CO2 was injected and the
produced oil was collected. The result of this study gave an
interesting oil recovery from 43% to 73.4%.